Keith says: "At the 2007 CMJ festival in New York, Mike from HHBTM Records suggested I write personal songs for the first 25 people who pre-order the album, Unclever, which was due out at the end of the year. They'd each give me a story about themselves, and I'd compose and record a bespoke song just for them. I loved the idea and foolishly upped it to 40 songs, though in the end it was 43."
The process: "I wrote and recorded the lot in about 6 weeks, usually doing 2 a day. I'd sit there with an e-mail of a story and a cup of coffee, and give myself an hour or so to come up with the concept and lyrics. Then I'd go into my little home studio and work feverishly to come up with the music. I had one SM57 microphone, my guitars, a cheap keyboard and a tiny drum-kit. After 3 hours or so I usually had something usable. All of them are, I suppose, sort of overworked demos. I thought it'd be a chance to recycle some old ideas but in the event it was easier to just let my mind flow and improvise completely new stuff. I'd given myself several days off, but by song 30 I was losing it. I sent Mike a message saying I couldn't finish the songs. He responded by telling me to just get on with it and stop moaning!"
The result: "I really enjoyed targeting an audience of one, which seemed to give me an immediate emotional direction with each song. As they stacked up I felt I was working on a monster album, so it was natural I vary the nature and genres of the tracks. But for more than 40 songs! Could I do it? In the end, of course, some are more successful than others, some are lighter, some darker, but all of them feel integral to the project. I feel it proved something about the creative process too, that deadlines and restrictions can be the artist's greatest engine. Hope you enjoy 'em. KJA
Listen to the songs below, or download the lot as a zip file [120Mb]. Oh, and visit Keith's main page here.
Mike, who runs the People In A Position To Know label, put Keith & Casper and the Cookies up in Olympia in Washington State during a 2006 tour. He cooked pasta with the biggest zucchini (courgette) any of them had seen. The next day he recorded his guests in his spare room with one microphone. The recordings were later released as a limited edition 8” vinyl platter.
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.Dave drove 4 hours to go to a wild party in a downtown Portland art gallery. He took his friend Wolf. Women sexually harass Dave, one of them stroking his hair. There’s a photographer there who seems to have a special thing for our Dave and gets him to pose. He takes a seat by the window just before some guy takes a piss out of it. Wolf vomits then sleeps on the drive home.
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.Jason was in a hurry to play Donkey Kong as a child, and rode his bike into a truck. He was taken concussed to hospital. He remembers watching a drama about Marco Polo while recovering. He’d captured a caterpillar and put it in a jar at school days earlier, but because he was off sick his classmates released it, and told him so in their get well cards.
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.Tom is becoming a father for the first time at the age of 40.
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.Mike runs HHBTM records and organises the annual HHBTM pop festival in Athens, puts out Keith's music in the USA and came up with the idea for these pre-order songs. And is a lovely fellow.
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.Jason Jones is The Double J. There are other double Js though, as revealed in the song. He, Keith & Mike had a good time in New York in 2006.
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.Trevor has a fear of falling asleep on a London bus and waking up in a depot. It hasn’t happened to him yet. He suggested the song could be about paranoia.
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.Angela’s grandmother recently died after suffering from the degenerative brain disease, Alzheimer’s. Angela had become her carer. Her grandmother would regularly hide things from Angela though (wallet, ATM card etc…) because the disease led her to not trust her granddaughter. Her grandmother was apologetic and embarrassed by her own actions but what could she do? It was a symptom of her condition.
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.Chris’s partner is Arianne. They first talked when he called her about advertising his label, Jigsaw Records, in her zine, Kickstand. They talked for 90 minutes. They had frequent (and expensive) phone calls over the next couple months. He ended up moving across the country to California to move in with her after only about seven months of phone calls and one 10-day meeting.
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.They wrote “We heart: the crocodile cafe, seattle indie pop, Absolut Mandrin, soda and lime, soy lattes, music festivals, free wifi, um... stuff like that.”
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.Mark went to a Nick Cave show where he spotted an attractive girl he couldn’t take his eyes off. But she wasn’t well. She collapsed onto the floor. He and friend picked her up but she couldn’t control her bowels. She shat on his leg and shoe. He felt hard done by.
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.Gordon collects ticket stubs and CDs and fliers and… he just can’t seem to throw things away. A friend of his challenged him over this obsession; she asked why he kept all his mail and had an old broken suitcase that was in the room. “Why make fun of my treasures,” replied Gordon. “OK lets see what these treasures are,” she says throwing open the suitcase, to reveal just one item, a red sequinned cape.
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.His favourite thing is flying, which he says is the closest you can get to meeting God or being a bird. But when on land, crossing from the USA to Canada with his best friend's family, he was stopped for not having a passport. The border guards asked if he was being kidnapped because he was the only white guy in a car full of Filipinos. Matt found that strange, given that if a gun was stuck in his ribs he’d be unlikely to say ‘yes’.
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.Kay plays bass for Casper and the Cookies. When a fight broke out at one of their shows her husband, Jason, stepped in and took a stick from one of those involved. Jason was then attacked by the man. Kay jumped on his assailant's back, bringing him to the ground. Her sudden display of combat readiness did no harm to sales of their album, The Optimist Club.
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.Giselle wanted a song about her great brother: a cult film aficionado who once told her that “love is a toothless whore with teeth” when she needed that perspective. They went to Rome where he drunkenly insisted on talking Italian to strangers despite his ignorance of the language. He once performed a marriage ceremony on a knife and fork. They were on a flight and he kept ripping pages out of the novel she was reading and drawing cartoons in the margins.
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.After falling in love in San Antonio, Karen got a place at London’s prestigious St Martin’s school of art to study fashion and design. It was an offer she couldn’t refuse. But Scot was determined not to lose her, and couldn’t wait, so impetuously moved to London. He lived secretly in her dorm. He couldn’t work legally in the UK, until that is, he married a residing student. They honeymooned in Brighton on the south coast and continue living happily ever after.
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.In Tim’s younger “financially irresponsible days” he let his cat, Minus, choose stocks & shares for him. He replaced the cardboard box he normally sleeps in with four different boxes, each with a different stock written on it. He then invested in the one that Minus chose to sleep in.
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.Arianne is used to people having a hard time pronouncing her name. A few years ago, she met her boyfriend Chris’s grandmother in Texas for the first time, who just could not get used to it. After a few unsuccessful tries, she gave up and said "Oh, I'll just call you Annie”.
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.Arianna’s boyfriend had to charm her Italian parents when they visited their home in Cornwall, UK. It was the first time her mother and father had ever left Italy and the pressure for Nigel to win them over must’ve been immense. Nigel took them to a classical guitar concert (father fell asleep and snored), a gnome reserve (mother thought Nigel was a lunatic) and even the lovely Dartmoor (a freak English snow storm). Finally he struck gold at a Cornish pub...fire...booze...and pasties, delicious Cornish pastries.
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.Pierre had Keith over to his place in Athens GA once for a drink. Keith sat heavily on the couch and was rudely assaulted by a pointy bit of its structure. Pierre still has the couch and it still assaults people.
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.Keef arrived at the poster/screenprint convention, Flatstock, in Austin, Texas, before his wife. He spotted an amusing poster showing a My Little Pony violently vomiting. He thought his wife would like it and so bought it, even though they were flat broke. But instead of being amused, she hated it and was furious he’d wasted their money. He got his money back.
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.Leslie owns a cute little pooch called Loppy who loves her and the feeling’s mutual. She runs a company called Pancake Meow which makes replica miniature baked goods (cakes, pastries) which can be worn or smelt. Her wonderful band is The Lolligags.
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.Andy took a powerful laxative in preparation for a colonoscopy, only to have a nerve/muscle seize in his back in effect paralysing him on the bathroom floor. Firemen and an ambulance crew turned up to help and he was taken to hospital, but all the time he was fighting a possibly very embarrassing rear explosion. He was taken face down to the hospital, so his rescuers were faceless. His wife Anita’s face though, appeared at the hospital, and some drugs got him back on his feet.
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.Eric merely gave Keith this statement: Life is fucked up and the world is a scary place but I'm glad I have wonderful friends. Eric is a film nut.
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.Randy’s children, Harper Lee & Claire have magical powers. Their bedroom has a view from their New York apartment of the Empire State Building. On many nights the ESB is lit in different colours than just white. One night Randy challenged his kids to turn the ESB yellow, blue and green. They concentrated hard and did it! Also at the subway station that takes them to school, Lexington Ave, there’s a sqeaky escalator that sounds like an elephant's roar, so they joke that an elephant lives there.
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.A friend of Joe’s convinced him and his wife to go on a music oriented cruise. The friend tried and failed to cajole Joe into working for his porn company. The music was not Joe’s cup of tea – mostly hippie jam bands. There were lots of drugs on board, nothing belonging to Joe though. The cruise left US waters for the Bahamas. On its return those on board were warned illicit substances in their possession should be used or discarded. The mood on the vessel became festive and Joe enjoyed some late night rum with various people. But it seems Joe had a sip of some laced booze without knowing it. He started tripping, tried to get to his room but collapsed on the stairs. He couldn’t understand a thing anyone says and he didn’t recognise his wife, Melissa. He was sedated and put into a straightjacket. He woke in a hospital bed strapped down like a lunatic.
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.Jeff met his wife in his dorm laundry room at college. She was doing homework while waiting for her laundry to finish, and on one of her folders was scrawled a couple of lines of dialogue spoken by the Blue Meanies in the Beatles movie Yellow Submarine. He told her he’d made a mix tape of all the songs from the movie, in the order they appeared. She’d done the exact same thing. She had a job hanging event posters up around campus, so he followed her around and accidentally "run into" her. It worked!
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.Raynald is the only song recipient to actually give Keith lyrics directly. His poem is full of strange rich surreal imagery.
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.When Chris was 16, staying with his friend Edward’s family in the UK, he embarked on a drinking session with the also visiting, also 16, Juliet. She mixed drinks from the home bar for the two boys and herself, but remained suspiciously sober while they got increasingly drunk. She left for bed and they downed her remaining drink. It was water. The next morning she was bright-eyed and bushy tailed, while Chris & Edward were groggy, hung over and blamed for the mess they left behind the night before.
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.When Ian married Beverly 15 years ago, they hired a vintage car to take her and the bridesmaids to the church. Unfortunately it had a fuel pump fault that brought it to a stop on any slight incline. They smile about it now but she wasn't best pleased at the time.
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.Keenan says she had a string of boyfriends who always end up kinda nuts. Typical lines from them she says, include "I'm just not in a good place right now... I have serious anxiety issues... I don't know how to be there for myself, so I can't possibly be there for someone else... I'm a total jerk...."
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.Chris is addicted to earning Frequent Flier miles. He once flew from Dallas, Texas to Austin, Texas six times over the course of two days during a special airline promotion, earning enough airline miles to fly anywhere in the world for $458.26. He gave details of other crazy sounding trips, and says he now has enough frequent flier miles to fly around the world twice over. He’s planning a global odyssey in the near future.
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.Jeffrey wrote: "One summerday, when we were sitting in the garden, my 4-year old daughter pointed at a plane high in the sky, crossing the blue air as a silvery dot with a white line behind it, and said: "I wish it would fall down, so that I could see how big it really is!"
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.A few years ago, Faith was living in Korea as a student and was involved in a reality show on Korean TV. She went on a bus trip to a famous Buddhist temple for a traditional lantern parade on Buddha's birthday. In the crowds of monks, devotees, and tourists, she got lost and the film crew captured some priceless footage of her crying and frantic, thinking she'd missed the bus. It was broadcast with melodramatic music and a narrator described her predicament in embarrassing detail.
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.Matt writes a blog called Skatterbrain. He didn’t give a story but says his friends are luke, jake, alyce, alex and chris. He likes scented candles a lot and fall (autumn) is his favourite season.
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.Mike plays soft tip darts and wanted a theme song of sorts for his team. The team is called "Riggie's Malls" It was supposed to be "Biggie Smalls" but someone at a tournament messed it up and they stuck with it. Team members are Mike Sean. They are two time defending 4th place champions. The tournaments are in Laughlin, NV and Las Vegas.
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.Keith was either never given a story by Zeb, or lost it. Efforts to get in touch resulted in Whadayawant.
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.One of Megan’s friends from Vermont invited her for Thanksgiving. She and a friend drove there in a van from Tennessee. On the way she almost died three times. First when a semi-truck ran them off the road at 70 mph; secondly when someone slammed on their breaks on the interstate, and a semi-truck almost rear ended the van; and thirdly about 2 minutes away from her friends house when they hit a patch of black ice and the van slid all over the road.
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.“Superior, Wisconsin, where my husband and I live, looks to most people like a used-up, gritty little town. Most of the beat-up neighbourhoods here don't have the breathtaking views of Lake Superior you get in neighbouring Duluth, the larger, wealthier and prettier city that sits on a hill across the bay. Here, the waterfront is reserved for rusting ore docks and dusty grain elevators.” But … says Superior has other charms: more bars than Duluth, and they’re open later; her husband’s parents live nearby; and their paychecks aren't consumed by a big mortgage.
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.Neil is a friend of Keith’s who has requested a song for his young son, Joe. KJA already wrote a song for Joe’s older sister, Agnes, and Neil is concerned Joe might feel left out later in life. Keith had run out of juice at this point in the process.
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.John wanted a song for his friend of the title. He grew up in Bloomington, MN. They were in a band called The Orange Company together. Patrick played bass. He worked for a fish supplier and would smell very bad. They lived as roommates in Minneapolis. Patrick now lives in NYC with girlfriend Sayra and cat Gary. He drove a baby blue Toyota.
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.Eric and Sweatpants from the band Fishboy tricked their brilliant drummer, John, into requesting a fictional song from Keith at the HHBTM Athens pop festival in 2006. They told him KJA had a number called Cocaine of a Hooker’s Chest. He didn’t, so John was embarrassed. Now Fishboy have asked for the song to be willed into existence.
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.Fishboy have asked for a 2nd song about the story of the fictional, now real song, Cocaine off a Hooker’s Chest. On the day Fishboy came up with the fictional song they asked KJA to help them out by emptying a large bag of popcorn over the audience at their show, which he did. Their bass player was kept in the dark about the scheme - he didn't approve. You can see it now on YouTube.
Listen to the song:Alternative content
or Download it.